1. Field
This invention relates to safety seats for children. More particularly, this invention provides a safety seat for children for use with a conventional vehicle passenger seat.
2. State of the Art
With increasing attention, the safety of vehicle passengers in recent years, a variety of devices have been devised to improve the safety of children being transported in vehicles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,259 (Blake) discloses a safety seat assembly positionable on a motor vehicle seat. It provides means to retain the child within the portable seat and means to restrain movement of the seat and in turn the child about a hinge interconnecting the seat to support structure proximate the middle of the back of an occupant. U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,548 (Briner) teaches construction of a child's seat wherein a seat member slides on the frame upon application and of external forces. U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,342 (De Vos) teaches construction of a seat which provides for upward and backward tilting of the occupant positioned within the seat.
Apparatus such as those disclosed in the above-identified patents and other known apparatus fail to provide structure sturdy enough to withstand large impact forces. They also fail to provide adequate means to secure the portable seat to the passenger seat of the motor vehicle. Further, such devices fail to take into account the need for frictional means to decelerate or abate movement imparted to a moveable seat structure upon which the child may reside. Furthermore, such devices to the extent that they do take into account the requirement to impede movement of a movable seat structure, fail to recognize that a child may not necessarily have muscle strength to avoid whip lash even with the application of minimal forces and fail to provide structure to prevent or inhibit operation or entanglement of the child and the child's play things with supporting structure. That is, with the devices as disclosed in the above-identified patents and as otherwise heretofore known, a child could impair or defeat the effectiveness of any safety seat apparatus by having positioned play things to block appropriate designed operational movement. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an effective safety seat for use by children wherein movement cannot be inhibited by play things and which take into account the dynamic or kinetic forces which may be experimental.